To hear a few crazies on the Left tell it, this week’s election results are a sign of the impending Social Democratic Paradise on Earth. News flash: uhhhh, ermmmm, not really, no. What it was was a repudiation of the Teabagging, Randian AMFYOYO dope dreams of the Radical Right. That is something quite different from an endorsement of the Hard Left.

The majority of the American electorate is and has always been Centrist.  This despite the earnest efforts of generations’ worth of extremists of many persuasions: alas, the sad reality is that most humans don’t really give a monkey’s about the nuances of political theory. What they want from politics is to have safety, security, and to do their own thing.  So when their wealth is redistributed beyond what seems an equitable extent, they get pissy. When their freedoms are infringed beyond the extent that seems required for their security, they get a wee bit ticked off. When they are insulted, condescended to, or abused, they get hugely pissed off.

All three things were done unto them in the past few years by the Radical Right; and so they gave the Teabaggers a humiliating kick in the groin. Well-deserved it was, and quite entertaining to watch. What they did not do was to endorse a wholesale shift to the Left.

What does that mean? If the Left wants to achieve their goals, they’ll have to do it slowly, carefully, respectfully, in consultation with the Center, and above all in a way that enhances the overall freedom, safety and security of the nation. That requires a calm, grownup approach, peeps.

The last thing anyone in the Center wants to hear right now are the words “radical” or “revolutionary”. They have had a bad experience with that sort of thing of late, and anyone who tries to peddle it now will wind up with their nether regions  feeling a lot like those of Akin, Mourdock and Company.

Mr. B & C